Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/272

woolshed are some little distance down the flat towards the sea. There are some five thousand acres on the Peraki run, which is now the property of Mr. F. A. Anson, Mr. Snow, who was formerly in partnership, having gone to the North.

The great historical interest in Peraki centres in the old whaling settlement that once existed on the beach. From Mr. Anson’s house to the sea, one cannot take a step without being reminded of the incidents recorded in Hempleman’s famous diary. It will be remembered that it was at that place the brig Bee landed Hemplemen and his men to prosecute the whale fishery in the year 1835. There are still thousands of the bones of whales to testify the success of the party. Great heaps of them are all around one, standing at high water mark, and there are more sad memorials also in the mounds that mark the spot where some of these adventurous men, who met their death by drowning, lie buried. On the left hand side, looking seaward, is a rock called “Simpson’s rock,” where that veteran whaler used to look out for whales, and nearly underneath it. is the point where the unfortunate steamer Westport received the injuries that eventually caused her total loss. The site of the “Long House,” the principal building in the old whaling times, is still visible, and so are the places where the caldrons were fixed, in which the oil was tried out. It was here that “Bloody Jack” came with his followers to demand the lives of those North Island Maori boys that were working there; the safety of one of whom was purchased by Hempleman and his men by the present of a boat. By the by, we have all beard that Hempleman saved the life of one of these boys by heading him up in a cask, and so hiding him from his enemies; but an altogether new version of this story is now current. It appears it was not one of the boys at all, who was headed up in a cask, but a young